Is that the Lantana in the bottom picture ? It's absolutely a lovely color, just gorgeous. I don't see any rough edges either, very nice garden.

That is the Lantana in the lower photo. It is probably my new favorite flower. I never really liked that really bright lantana, the Lantana camara(?) I think it is. But this native one I just love. It's the perfect pale yellow color. From 15 feet away it looks like you have the healthiest yellow miniature rose.. lol But, then you get closer and go, oh, it's just lantana.. I need to try to get some cuttings going of it now that it is pretty well established.

What a beautiful garden Jennifer. I love it and I'm sure the butterflies do too. I much prefer an informal, natural look in a butterfly garden. I bet you'll have a few hummers visiting as well :)

rvird01, I do prefer an informal look too. I'm working on another bed in the backyard where I haven't even removed the weeds, just dug holes and planted and then put the weeds back around. But, I've mostly planted Florida natives back there, so it's pretty much a weed garden.. lol
Still a little light on butterflies for the year, but starting to see some visitors. Tons of bees all of a sudden as of last week, but they mostly love the bidens alba you really can't see as it's in the background. Hummingbirds are almost constant. I have two feeders up too, but they're still being pretty territorial about chasing each other off.

How pretty, I have a butterfly garden, too. I have salvias and dwarf butterfly bushes with some Pentas, Porterweed, and Cuphea. I have lantana in another part of my yard, a better behaved cultivar than Camaro. I am just starting to see visitors, too. If you ever have room for larger plants, yellow and red Cestrum, as well as cassia are big butterfly attractors.

Morningloree, do you have much luck with your butterfly bushes in the ground or are yours in pots? Mine just died so fast in the ground that now all I have are two white ones in those big plastic half barrels. I got my first two cuphea this year, but, they're up in the front yard border as I just couldn't find a place to stick them with the rest of the butterfly plants. Cestrum I don't have any of at all, but I did get two varieties of Cassia that are around the corner from my butterfly garden. I haven't seen them bloom yet, but the sulphurs have been checking out the leaves. No caterpillars yet, but I keep checking. Eventually I'm hoping that the whole yard will be nothing but edibles, roses and butterfly gardens. But, that will take a few more years at least.

I love the salvia's and agastache as well, but, I planted all of mine from last year in bad locations. The ones I had are potted up to recover and then find them better spots. Just too much shade where I planted them.

Last year was my first year really planting anything, so, made a lot of mistakes. Hoping just to make a few less mistakes this year.. lol

I still have a few Buddleas (butterfly bushes) but I'm going to give up on them once these bushes die off. They have to be deadheaded and they only last a few years in Florida soil before the nematodes get to the roots. Up north they do much better I hear. Mine are in large pots.

Love the native lantana, Jennifer. I don't plant them because they don't bloom all that often. I think they have a good bloom in the spring and then it's very sporadic after that. The nice thing about lantana is that they are very xeric--require little water once established.

We seem to be in the same general area, Jennifer. Have you gone to Biosphere nursery? It has natives and excellent butterfly and hummingbird plants, including the best nectar plant in the area for butterflies, the large red pentas.

I'm really liking that bed, which is much more varied than my daughter's. The one I built for her currently looks like a huge mass of tropical sage, though there are other things planted as well.

I'm not sure why, but the butterflies have been really scarce around here. Last year I had Gulf Frits all over the place and both Giant and Citrus Swallowtails were common sights. The Zebra Longwings weren't common for me, but I saw at least one every other day. This year... not much at all. There are a few White Checkered and I've seen some Buckeyes, but the Gulf Frits have been non-existent, I've seen two, maybe three, Giant Swallowtails and a whopping one Zebra Longwing. Though, this morning I had two monarchs show up, so hopefully they'll find my milkweed and start a brood. On a possibly related note: I also noticed that while we got Love Bugs this spring, their numbers were noticeably smaller. Last spring and last fall the north and west sides of my house were peppered with the things, but this year they were barely a nuisance.

Tom, I've actually heard that up north those Buddleia butterfly bushes are invasive. Crazy to think when it's a decent amount of work keeping one going here. Surely no risk of them spreading here.. lol
I'm kind of surprised by how many blooms those Lantana have gotten. I figured there must be some downside to them or everyone would have them. So, I'll enjoy them for now, they may get moved if they only bloom a few weeks a year.

I'm in the Deland area, but I have made it to Biosphere once. I'm hoping that I was just there on a really bad day. I went with their pricelist printed and ready to pick up like 20 different things. Person working that day was less than enthused, but I could understand why as they seemed to have nothing in stock. Everything I asked about they didn't have with exception of two items. Unfortunately nothing was marked, so I had to keep pestering the person working about where things were, about 14 items into my list I gave up and just bought the two things we'd found. I did get a climbing aster and a yesterday, today and tomorrow. It really felt like the place was going out of business. But, I would love to hear that was just a bad day and that they've got plants in again. I was really looking for the large pentas and the petrea volubilis, but no luck on either of those. Next time I'm in the area I will try them again though.

Leekle2man, It's hard to miss those large sages, they fill up a bed pretty well. You can't see mine as it's to the right of the photo, but it's hiding a smallish plumbago.. lol

I keep trying to tell myself there will be more butterflies later in the year, but, my passionvines aren't getting eaten down much at all. Milkweed hasn't been touched. All I've really seen are a couple sulphurs and some swallowtails. I guess the skippers showed up last week or so. I keep telling myself that June I'll have tons of Gulfs again, but, not seeing them like last year yet.

Jennifer,
In Ohio, i had around 10 varieties of butterfly bush. They were planted on the South side of the property in full sun and required little water. They would die back to the ground and around June start growing. By August, they would be 5-6 feet tall. I never had any problems with them being aggressive.
So, when we moved down here, of course I had to try them. They failed to grow anywhere I planted them until I finally moved them against the foundation on the East side of the house where they only get morning sun. They only get a few feet tall but nice and full and covered in blooms. I deadhead them every time I walk by to keep them blooming all summer.

Hi,
I have my butterfly bushes in the ground, they are in part shade. I have the dwarf variety, Blue Chip. I have had them for 2 years, die back in winter and return in spring. To get them started, I had to water them more frequently. In my area butterfly bushes and salvias seem to like the same conditions, I have them on the east side of the house with some saw palmetto as a backdrop and they get late morning/early afternoon sun. I have had mostly Monarch butterflies, plenty of milkweed. Lantana likes sun and will bloom well with sun exposure, you should have blooms during the warm weather. Great butterfly garden you've got there.

Ad few wild coffee( full bloom now), wild lime, scorpion plant , aloe....list is endless.....love your garden! Nice pictures..........!!!!!!

Here is part of mine

I don't know if it will hold true for Lantana depressa, but last year I had nearly nonstop blooming from my Lantana montevidensis (Trailing Lantana) and while I know they are supposed to be year-round bloomers, mine were much more profuse than the ones I've seen in 'Professionally done' landscapes. Mine were also much fuller and the reason is because each month I would go out and cut back the growth by about half. This both removed dead heads and forced the plants to grow side branches.

I recently picked up some L. depressa myself (though mine are about half the size of yours and are white with yellow centers instead of full-yellow) and I'm going to be trying the same tactic with them. When I got them home, they already had blossoms on them and those blossoms started going to fruit, something the L. montevidesis doesn't do. Once mine started going to fruit, they stopped blooming so I pruned back the branches and, a week later, blooms started forming again. I'm going to keep an eye on them and see if they repeat the fruit-no bloom bit and then I will prune them back again and see if I can force another bloom cycle.

Oh, and the reason a lot of people don't go for Lantana's is because they're mildly toxic to wildlife and livestock. It's not 'keel-over-dead' toxic, but it can cause digestive issues. On the same day that I got my L. depressa I stopped at a nursery on my way home and told the lady about my purchases, at which she screwed up her face and said, "Lantana? I guess you don't own cattle" in a rather contemptuous tone.

Jennifer, the last time I stopped at Biosphere they had very little also. I think it's very dependent upon what going on. If there are a lot of plant sales they take their plants there and leave very few at the nursery Recently I left them with a potted and healthy cuphea Schumannii and about ten cuttings of the same plant. This particular cuphea is tremendous for hummingbirds. It constantly blooms and grows like a weed. It is now my favorite hummingbird plant and I have many.

If you are in the area of Biosphere let me know. I always have pentas potted and cuttings growing. I also have potted Schumannii and you can have many cuttings. I have them growing in at least six different places.

Sorry for the delay in response, work got busy.. :)

rvird01, I bet that location by the foundation is the key. I have roses that are on the wrong rootstock that are still alive 15 years later because they were planted snug against a sidewalk and the nematodes don't bother them there. I wish I would've known to deadhead mine, they hadn't bloomed since last summer despite not dying back at all. Finally deadheaded them a couple weeks back and now new blooms are coming on.

Thank you Morningloree, I have only one butterfly bush in the ground that has sort of made it. It gets morning sun, but afternoon shade. It hasn't had a new bloom since I stuck it in the ground last May. I try to water everyday for the first month or so, but for whatever reason I never got them going well. I'm tempted to dig that one up and pot it up to recover then relocate it and try another location. This time probably snug against concrete to give it a fighting chance. I'm always pretty light on Monarchs. I usually only see one or two the whole summer and all my milkweed goes unused. One of these days I may just order in some caterpillars to get them started in my yard. I love your garden, thanks for sharing. Is that pine bark? It looks a lot more natural than what I used. I think next time I'll mulch with pine straw. I just forgot it even existed and since I work at a Lowes I just picked up mulch when it went down to $1 a bag.

Wallisadi, I do have aloe out in containers in the front yard, but haven't put any in the ground yet. I should though, containers are getting overfull again. I don't yet have wild coffee, wild lime or scorpion plant. I should watch for them next time I hit a plant sale. That scorpion plant seems to have blooms which look a lot like the almond plant I have, though they are different species. I bet the bees love them.

Leekle2ManE, my lantana grew very quickly. I've watered it every day and it has probably doubled in size in the month or two it's been in the ground. Mine only really took off blooming in the last couple weeks, so I'll have to watch and see if I need to deadhead them to keep them blooming. Mine don't seem to be going to seed, so perhaps I don't have the real L. depressa. Mine was originally from Grandiflora nursery in Gainesville which is the one the museum there buys from for their native plant sales. But, they carry several kinds of Lantana, so mine could have been mislabeled. The poisonous problem is probaly why milkweed wasn't popular either until more recently.

Tom123, I think I may have to watch and catch Biosphere at a sale then. Though, I think at this point that probably won't be until September or so, but I'll look and see. I wish I made it to Winter Garden more often. I'd like to make it there again and then over to Lukas nursery in Oviedo. I'll let you know next time I'm heading out there as I've bought more pentas than I care to count in search of the tall red ones and never have them get over 18". I'll have to try the schumanni, I have some kind of cuphea, a bright red one that was on clearance at Lowes, but I know it's not a schumanni.

Beautiful garden, Jennifer!

Question-- did you start your plants as seeds, or did you purchase them already in plant form? Thanks!

Mverde, this section was all pretty much done with plants I purchased rather than seed. Still working the kinks out of starting from seed. Last year I only had a few things I started from seed actually make it. A thunbergia, a milkweed, some bulbing fennel, a gaillardia and I think that's about it. This year I've had more success with seed, but nothing large enough yet to fill out an area. This year the first 20 seed pots I started all pretty much germinated, but after that the birds apparently figured out the pots had seeds in them. Nothing has sprouted since and the cardinals seem to take a lot of interest in what's in those pots.. lol I think I'm going to start seeds in September or so for next year but this time I'll start them in the sunroom. I just have to find a way to protect the plants from my pesty cat who goes out there and tries to eat everything.

Thanks for the follow up, Jennifer! I have recently sown butterfly weed as well as 4 o clocks and columbines, and so far some of the butterfly weed and columbines have germinated! I am weary to start with seeds, but this is my first time starting an actual garden in my home, and I just wanted to try it out! I placed the seeds in those peat seed start up kits and leave them outside in a tray... fortunately no critter has gotten to them yet! Hopefully it stays that way.